Brunswick welcomes the "Alferio 5"

Brunswick School teachers Jacob and Leann Alferio - along with the entire district - welcomed the newest five members of their family Oct. 7.

BRUNSWICK - Brunswick Schools' history was made in more than one way Oct. 7 – in fact, it was made in five ways.

After 29 weeks of pregnancy, Visintainer Middle School teacher Leann Alferio and her husband, Willetts Middle School teacher Jacob Alferio, welcomed Giovanni, Brooklynn, Jade, Kensley, and Leighton into the world – breaking the known record for two-teacher- multiple-births in district history.

“I do think this is a first,” Assistant Superintendent Joelle Magyar said with a laugh today. “Leann told me that the best part about it when they found out there were going to be five is that they didn’t have to fight over baby names – they could use them all.”

As the alferio5.weeby.com blog dedicated to the journey of Leann, Jacob and the quintuplets’ older sister Lexi shows, the event has been shared by the entire community.

“We had baby showers at both buildings and had a diaper drive – because they are going to need them,” Magyar said. “They are all doing well, and members of the staff are all pretty excited. We have all decided to rotate rocking duty and there has been no shortage of volunteers for that.”

The Alferio family was, understandably, a bit tied up at Fairview Hospital the day after the births, but in the family blog, Leann described the experience from its shocking beginning.

“We had been trying to get pregnant for over a year so the anticipation we had going into our first ultrasound was immeasurable,” Leann wrote. “I can still picture the doctor's face and hear her words, ‘Leann, this is bad--really bad.’ I obviously thought the worst...there wasn't a heartbeat, I wasn't actually pregnant, I had miscarried. In the few seconds of silence that followed her words my mind raced with all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong.

’There are five,’ she said.”

Leann went on to write that the meaning of the words did not sink in for several seconds.

“I don't think I completely understood what she meant by that until she was several minutes into her spiel about how a woman's body is not intended to carry five babies,” Leann said. “She warned us of the risks of mental retardation, cerebral palsy, premature birth, and all the other possibilities that expecting parents never want to hear. She left us with a recommendation to look into fetal reduction and take it into serious consideration. Before we had even gotten to the car after leaving the appointment we had both decided-without any doubt or debate- that unless there was a serious health risk to one of the babies or myself we were keeping all five. “

Now that the bundles of joy have arrived, Leann said the most difficult question to answer throughout the pregnancy remains.

“How will you take care of five babies at once? - This is the hardest one to answer,” she writes. “We have to take this process day-by-day in order to not be overwhelmed. We have received so much support already from friends and family; we just hope it will still be there when the babies come home crying and needing their diapers changed.”

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